About Us

History

My name is Kevin Barton. In May of 1993, my wife, Tina and I purchased Mountain View Mercantile (a True Value Hardware Store at the time). We began our lives as local business owners in the small ski town of Big Sky. Operating the store with no employees for the first six months, it was truly a Mom & Pop operation. We grew the business to the point of needing a larger facility and began the search for a new location in 2004. It took more than ten years for everything to fall into place for our new store dreams. We changed vendor affiliation in May of 2013, joining the Ace Hardware family of retailers. Changing to Ace was a key decision, and absolutely critical to our ability to open our new 14,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility.

In February of 2015, Tina lost her battle with cancer and the plans for the new store, although underway, were in serious jeopardy. Thankfully, with a lot of help from family, friends and our magnificent employees, the new store development progressed. Less than one year after her death, much of Tina’s vision of our new store came into being on December 8, 2015. Tina’s signature Kitchen/Housewares Department is showcased in Sweet T’s Kitchen. This store within a store concept, features the industry leading brands in contemporary housewares and kitchen tools, appliances, gadgets and gifts.

Serving the community of Big Sky for more than 23 years, has been my great privilege. Today, we have the facility that we’ve long needed to adequately and efficiently supply the town’s hardware needs. I am quite proud that our store operates at the highest metrics within Ace’s chain of more than 4,600 hardware retailers. Our year-over-year sales growth has set Ace Hardware Corporation’s benchmark. In our first year of the new store, we have been nominated within Ace for one of the “Coolest Hardware Stores on the Planet” award, as well as being the #1 performing store within our store demographic/segmentation group. We hope to reach the “Pinnacle” level of Ace performance, denoting achievement at Ace’s highest performance level within the chain, by the end of 2016.

We are Ace “Certified Helpful”, meaning that our staff of more than 20 employees receives the training and tools needed to further Ace Corporate’s commitment to being the “Place with the Helpful Hardware Folks”. My staff and I take this challenge very seriously, and we are always striving to improve upon this simple philosophy. It is our mission to always be helpful, friendly and thankful to those who do business with us. Our involvement in the community is also very important to our mission of being “Ace Helpful.” As such, for more than 20 years, Ace Hardware – Big Sky has proudly supported the Big Sky School District, Big Sky Fire Department, Gallatin County Sheriff’s Department, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and Bozeman Health Foundation (Big Sky), to name just a few recipients of our company support.

As Ace Hardware – Big Sky grows, we will continue to strive to provide the very best in customer service by updating and upgrading our inventory and facility as well as training specialized hardware professionals who are eager to help supply our customers with the products and knowledge they need to finish whatever their project may be. Thank you for your support of our local business,